Automated device behavior management based on network charging and rating conditions

ABSTRACT

Disclosed embodiments include a method for automatically managing wireless device actions based on network provider-controlled financial conditions, such as the current rate (e.g., cents/minute) for a voice or data communication. In one embodiment, the user configures preferences indicating how the device should behave based on certain financial conditions. The device and the provider communicate transparently to the user to monitor current financial conditions and take actions automatically based on the user preferences. The provider communicates current financial conditions, and the device takes actions according to the user preferences, including executing downloaded applications on the device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application is related to U.S. application No.______, (Attorney Docket No. 101948086US) entitled, “ConditionalApplication Invocation in a Wireless Device” by Christopher White; U.S.application No. ______, (Attorney Docket No. 101948088US) entitled,“Automated Device Behavior Management Based on Preset Preferences” byChristopher White: and U.S. application No. ______, (Attorney Docket No.101948089US) entitled, “Control of Security of Ease-of-Use Sensitivityfor a Wireless Communication Device: by Christopher White, all filed onthe same day herewith and commonly assigned to AT&T Wireless Services,Inc.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The disclosed embodiments relate to automatic wirelesscommunication device awareness of current conditions related to networkcharges and rates (“financial conditions”), and user-defined devicebehavior based on those conditions. The disclosed embodiments give awireless device user greater automatic control over how rating andcharging conditions affect device use.

[0003] Users of wireless communication devices agree on rating andcharging terms in a service provider agreement. The network serviceprovider, or carrier, typically offers a variety of plans with differentvariables. The variables include the amount of air time per billingcycle that is charged at a minimum rate, more favorable rates during“off-peak” times such as nights and weekends (as opposed to “on-peak” or“peak”) times, different rates for on-network use and roaming use, feesfor special services such as call conferencing and email usage, etc. Theamount of time available per billing cycle at a certain rate issometimes referred to as the amount of time in a “bucket”. For example,the user typically chooses a number of minutes per month, e.g., 100minutes per month, that are free or charged at a minimal rate. After the100 bucket minutes are used, airtime is charged, or is charged at ahigher rate.

[0004] Users benefit from having an awareness of how much money theywill spend if they use their device at a certain time or in a certainway. For example, the user might like to know that only five minutes areleft in the bucket. This rating and charging awareness is even moreimportant with data connections than with voice connections. Forexample, sending or receiving email during peak hours may be much moreexpensive than during off-peak hours. For the user to adjust deviceusage based on rating and charging conditions, however, the usercurrently must affirmatively: 1) find out what the conditions are; 2)act or refrain from acting accordingly. For example, for some devices,the user can press keys on the keypad to find out how many minutes areleft in the bucket.

[0005] Currently, the ability to automatically manage device use basedon financial conditions is very limited, and also costly and awkward.For example, if a user wishes for an action be taken based on acondition, such as having particular phone numbers disabled undercertain conditions, this is currently handles on anoccurrence-by-occurrence basis at the provider site. The provider mustprogram a local provider application to recognize that the devicebelonging to the particular account is making a particular call when aspecified condition is current. The provider must then invoke a nativeapplication on the device, such as the call controller, to disable thespecified phone numbers. This has several limitations and disadvantages.The user must make a written or verbal request to the provider. Theprovider must assign someone to program the provider application, andactivities of the affected device must be monitored, which slows callhandling. The provider can only invoke native applications, notdownloaded applications, which limits the actions that can be taken inresponse to a condition.

[0006] Overall, there is a need for an improved ability to automaticallymanage wireless device behavior based on rating and charging conditions.There is a need to allow the wireless device user greater flexibility toautomatically control device use with minimal provider interventionusing all of the capability of the device, including the capabilities ofdownloaded applications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007]FIG. 1 is a diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communicationsystem.

[0008]FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of deviceconfiguration.

[0009]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of remote applicationinvocation.

[0010]FIG. 4 is a diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communicationdevice.

[0011]FIG. 5 is a diagram of an embodiment of a Java applicationmanagement service (“JAMS”).

[0012]FIG. 6 is another diagram of an embodiment of a wirelesscommunication device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013] Embodiments of the invention, described below, include a methodfor automatically managing wireless device actions based on networkprovider financial conditions, such as the current rate (e.g.,cents/minute) for a voice or data communication. The financialconditions are typically agreed upon by the network provider and theuser, but are controlled by the provider. The user configurespreferences indicating how the device should behave based on certainfinancial conditions. Embodiments of the invention include storing dataon the wireless device, on provider equipment or both, based on thepreferences. The device and the provider communicate transparently tothe user to monitor current financial conditions and take actionsautomatically based on the user preferences. Depending on the class ofthe device, communication and device behavior as described herein canoccur during, or not during, a voice connection. In the latter case, thecommunication is queued until the voice connection is closed. Thecommunication and behavior does not occur when the device is powereddown.

[0014] In one embodiment, the user device includes native applicationsand downloaded applications. The downloaded applications could come froma variety of sources (vendors) and are individually configured by theuser and/or the vendor. The provider may have no knowledge of thedownloaded applications. Embodiments of the inventions, however, allowthe user configuration to dictate which applications are automaticallyexecuted at particular times based on financial conditions, such thatthe provider does not need to be aware of downloaded applications on adevice. The user configuration is applicable at an account level, makingthe user configuration automatically applicable to multiple devices onone account. The provider does not need to intercept or speciallyprocess calls in order to affect the device behavior. The provider onlyrecognizes the condition and passes it to the device for processing.

[0015]FIG. 1 is a diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communicationsystem 100. The system 100 is arbitrarily divided into two areas. Area104 includes equipment and applications (“provider equipment”) typicallyprovided and maintained by a wireless communication service provider,such as a cellular phone service provider. Area 102 includes equipmentand applications (with the exception of radio tower 116) that aretypically not provided or maintained by the provider, but are designedto communicate on the wireless network with the provider equipment.System 100 is an example of one arrangement of elements, but others arepossible. A cellular phone service provider is one example of aprovider, but other examples include any wireless service provider thatprovides wireless communication capabilities through a user device overa wireless network. For example, service providers that support personaldigital assistants (“PDAs”) are also providers for purposes of theembodiments described.

[0016] The area 104 includes various elements useful to illustrateembodiments. Many typically known elements of provider equipment are notshown because they do not add to the understanding of the embodiments.For example, various computers or data processors are not shown, but areknown to be part of the provider equipment. Provider applications 106are software applications that maintain and administer the network. Forexample, the applications 106 include billing applications, performancemonitoring applications, and many more. The applications 106 includeapplications that track user accounts, which are typically designated bya responsible billing party. The account may include one user with onedevice, or a group of many users each with a respective device. Forexample, some enterprises provide groups of employees with devices forlimited or unlimited use in the course of employment.

[0017] The area 104 further includes a database or databases 108 and110. The databases 108 and 110 are shown separately to distinguish thetypes of data stored, but could be one physical entity or more than twophysical entities. The database 110 is a billing database that storesdata used by the provider to generate bills for an account. Billing dataincludes all of the information in the user's rate plan, such as numberof minutes in a bucket, bucket rates, out of bucket rates, etc.

[0018] A user preferences database 108 stores a user's choices regardingwhat financial conditions the user would like the device to beautomatically notified of. The user preference database also includesactions the user would like the device to take when a financialcondition occurs. One example is the device automatically blocking alloutbound calls upon during peak billing rate time.

[0019] A short message service controller (“SMSC”) 114 manages shortmessaging, including receiving/sending, generating, andencoding/decoding SMS messages. The wireless communication device 118communicates over the wireless network using radio towers such as radiotower 116 in the known manner. An event manager 112 recognizes eventsand sends a message to the SMSC in response. An event manager 112recognizes events that indicate a change in the current financialcondition (such as change from off-peak to peak) and sends a message tothe SMSC in response.

[0020] A user 120 of a wireless communication device 118 may configurethe user preferences by accessing a dedicated provider configurationapplication (one of the applications 106). The applications 106 may beaccessed using the device 118, or using a personal computer 122 toaccess the application 106 via the Internet 124. The user preferencesare developed by the provider configuration application based on userinputs and downloaded from the provider to the device 118. The device118 includes downloaded applications (not shown in FIG. 1) that may comefrom the provider or any third party. Downloaded applications from theprovider may be configured in the same way as preferences, as described.Downloaded applications from third parties may be configured in any waydictated by the third party source. The provider has no knowledge of theconfiguration of the third party downloaded applications or theirindividual configurations. The user 120, however, knows which downloadedapplications are present on the device 118 and how they are configuredto behave. The user 120 can therefore configure the user preferencesaccordingly. For example, the user may configure the user preferencessuch that a downloaded email application only sends or receives emailsduring an off-peak period.

[0021]FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of the device118 configuration. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, at 202 the userindividually configures the downloaded applications on the device 118.Then, the user configures the user preferences at 204, and the userpreferences are stored (at 206) in the database 108. When a new userconfiguration is stored for an account, a message is sent to the shortmessage service controller (“SMSC”) 114 at 208. At 210, the SMSC 114generates an encoded SMS message to the device 118 that indicates a newuser configuration is available to be downloaded. At 212, the device 118opens a communication channel to the provider equipment 104 to retrievethe new configuration data. In one embodiment, the encoded messagereaches the device 118, indicating that the device 118 is receiving ageneral packet radio service (“GRPS”) signal. In one embodiment, thecondition “Home GPRS Available” is in the signal. The device 118 invokesa Java application management service (“JAMS”, described further below),which looks for applications with a “Refresh when new data connectionbecomes available” flag set. The indicated applications start andperform data refreshes. The user need not take any actions. The newconfiguration data is received, and a condition catalog and a conditionregistry (described below) are updated at 214.

[0022] For the purpose of device 118 configuration, out-of-band signalsare exchanged between the device 118 and the provider equipment,although in-band signaling could be used. These signals may be exchangedvia a hypertext transfer protocol (“HTTP”) connection, a wirelessapplication protocol (“WAP”) connection, or any other wirelesscommunication method.

[0023]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of automaticconditional application invocation. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, At302, a message is sent to the event manager 112 to indicate that a newcondition is becoming current. As one example, the billing database 110sends a message to the event manager 112 indicating that the bucket isempty. At 304, the event manager 112 sends a message to the SMSC 114requesting that an encoded message be generated. The SMSC encodes themessage and sends it to the device 118 at 306. At 308, the device 118receives and decodes the message, and sends a return message to retrievethe financial condition from the event manager 112. At 310, the device118 receives the financial condition from the event manager 112 andprocesses the financial condition using a condition registry asdescribed below. In an alternative embodiment, the SMS message sent tothe device includes the financial condition. In this embodiment,therefore, the device does not retrieve the condition from the eventmanager 112.

[0024] Once the financial conditions and the conditions are available tothe device, the device is able to make decisions based on theuser-selected choices. One scenario is a user, Bob, writing an email tosend to Tom. Bob's device is currently set to send email only duringoff-peak periods. The message thus queues in Bob's device, along withany other email he has written, until the network notifies the device ofa rate change. When the device receives notification that rates havechanged downward, the device wakes up the email application and sendsout all mail in the queue.

[0025] Another scenario is Bob setting his email preferences to send andreceive high-priority messages whenever they are generated. All otheremails wait for the change to an off-peak period. Tom's email markedhigh-priority would be delivered immediately to the device. Thisrepresents a conscious choice made by the user, which can be changed atany time.

[0026] In yet another scenario, Tom wishes to limit the amount of timehis son Billy can talk to certain people each month on his cellularphone. For example, Tom sets his preferences such that Billy can onlytalk to his best friend Sam for 60 minutes per month. Once Billy hasreached that limit, the phone will no longer dial that number or acceptincoming calls from that number. When the bill cycle completes, thephone will receive a new bucket message from the network and reset itscounter for Sam's number. The limitation extends only to the numberspreselected by Tom. Calls to Tom, or Tom's wife, to 911, 611, or 311,would not be affected.

[0027]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the device 118. Thedevice 118 includes native applications 404, and downloaded applications408. Radio 402 includes the hardware and software required tocommunicate over the wireless network. A JAMS 406 includes Java programsand Java program management capability. Many other known elements of thedevice 118, such as on-board processors and storage elements, are notshown.

[0028]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the JAMS 406 in one embodiment. TheJAMS 406 includes downloaded Java applications 502 designated A, B, C,and D. The number of downloaded Java applications shown is an arbitraryexample. The actual number of downloaded Java applications stored can begreater or less than four, and is only limited by storage capacity. TheJAMS 406 also stores a condition catalog 504 and a condition registry506.

[0029]FIG. 6 is another block diagram of the JAMS 406 showing moredetail of the condition catalog 504 and the condition registry 506. Thecondition catalog 504 includes a list of conditions recognized by thedevice 118. The condition catalog is populated when the user downloadsnew user preferences as previously described. Some examples of financialconditions are off-peak rate time, peak rate time, being on the network,roaming for service, and the bucket being empty. The conditions shownare a subset of possible conditions that can be recognized by the device118. The condition registry 506 includes a list of the conditionsrecognized by the device 118 for each condition, and which downloadableJava applications (A, B, C, and/or D) should be executed when thecondition occurs. For example, when condition 2 (peak rates are current)occurs, application A and B are executed. Application A may be anapplication that generates a user message that the transition isoccurring, while application B may block outgoing calls automatically(subject to user override). In other embodiments, the applicationslisted in the condition registry include native applications as well asdownloaded applications. In other embodiments, the condition catalog andcondition registry do not reside on the JAMS, but reside elsewhere onthe device.

[0030] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of “including,but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. Additionally, thewords “herein,” “hereunder,” “above”, “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, shall refer to this applicationas a whole and not to any particular portions of this application.

[0031] The above detailed descriptions of embodiments of the inventionare not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to theprecise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, andexamples for, the invention are described above for illustrativepurposes, various modifications are possible within the scope of theinvention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while steps are presented in a given order, alternativeembodiments may perform routines having steps in a different order. Theteachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily only wireless communication system describedherein. The various embodiments described herein can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

[0032] These and other changes can be made to the invention in light ofthe above detailed description. In general, the terms used in thefollowing claims should not be construed to limit the invention to thespecific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the abovedetailed description explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, theactual scope of the invention encompasses the disclosed embodiments andall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention underthe claims.

[0033] While certain aspects of the invention are presented below incertain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects ofthe invention in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the invention is recited as embodied in a computer-readablemedium, other aspects may likewise be embodied in a computer-readablemedium. Accordingly, the inventors reserve the right to add additionalclaims after filing the application to pursue such additional claimforms for other aspects of the invention.

I claim:
 1. A method for automatically managing wireless device actionsbased on network provider-controlled financial conditions, the methodcomprising: receiving user preferences regarding device actions to beassociated with a financial condition, wherein the financial conditionrelates to a current provider-imposed cost of using a wireless device,and wherein receiving user preferences includes receiving userspecification of actions to be taken by the device when certainfinancial conditions are current; updating configuration data in thedevice to reflect the user preferences, including storing the specifiedactions and associating the specified actions with the financialconditions; sending a message to the device when one or more of thefinancial conditions becomes current; and the device automaticallyperforming actions in response to the occurrence of the financialcondition, including automatically executing one or more downloadedapplications.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically performingactions further comprises the device looking up the financial conditionand looking up at least one application to be executed in response tothe financial condition.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the messagesent to the device is an encoded short message service (“SMS”) messagethat includes the financial condition.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe message sent to the device is an encoded short message service(“SMS”) message, and wherein the device responds to the message byopening a data connection to retrieve the financial condition.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the certain financial conditions include: apeak rate being current; an off-peak rate being current; a minute bucketbeing empty; the wireless device means currently roaming for service;the wireless device means currently on network; and a start of a newbilling period.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user preferencesapply to one or more devices associated with a responsible billingparty, such that each associated device automatically performs the sameactions in response to an occurrence of a same financial condition,including automatically executing one or more downloaded applications.7. A method for automatically managing wireless device actions based onfinancial conditions agreed with a wireless network service provider,the method comprising: a wireless device receiving user preferencesregarding actions to be taken by a device on an occurrence of afinancial condition, wherein the financial condition relates to acurrent cost of using the device to communicate via a provider network;the device updating configuration data in the device to reflect the userpreferences; the service provider sending a message to the device whenthe financial condition occurs; and the device automatically performingactions in response to the occurrence of the financial condition,including automatically executing one or more downloaded applications,transparently to the user.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein updatingthe configuration data further comprises: receiving a message from theprovider indicating a change in user preference information; initiatinga data session with the provider; retrieving preference information andupdating data in the wireless device, wherein the data in the wirelessdevice includes financial conditions recognized by the device andapplications to be executed in response to the financial conditions,wherein the applications include one or more downloaded application. 9.The method of claim 7, further comprising: individually configuring theone or more downloaded applications, each of which has one or moresupplier-dictated configuration procedures, including, configurationthrough a device user interface; configuration through a personalcomputer via the Internet; and remote configuration by a supplier of thedownloaded application through a data connection.
 10. The method ofclaim 7, comprising: notifying the device a financial condition iscurrent; and the device responding by, recognizing the financialcondition; and determining which of the one or more softwareapplications is to be executed when the financial condition is current.11. The method of claim 7, wherein the device responding comprises:notifying the device a financial condition is current; and the deviceresponding by, accessing a condition catalog that includes conditionsrecognized by the device; and accessing a condition registry thatrelated conditions to actions to be taken by the device, wherein thecondition catalog and the condition registry are populated according tothe user preferences.
 12. The method of claim 7, further comprising theuser remotely accessing a network provider application to configure theuser preferences.
 13. The method of claim 7, wherein sending a messagecomprises encoding a short message service (“SMS”) message.
 14. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the financial condition comprises: a peakrate being current; an off-peak rate being current; a minute bucketbeing empty; the wireless device means currently roaming for service;the wireless device means currently on network; and a start of a newbilling period.
 15. A wireless communication system, comprising:wireless communication provider equipment, comprising a storage devicethat stores provider software applications and data, including an eventmanager application and a short message service controller (SMSC)application; a wireless communication device coupled to the providerequipment, comprising, more than one software application, includingnative applications and downloaded applications, wherein the downloadedapplications are individually configured by a wireless device user; acondition catalog that stores a list of user-specified conditionsrelated to a user's cost for communicating using the wireless device; acondition registry that stores relationships between conditions andactions, wherein the wireless device receives notification that acondition is current from the provider equipment and automaticallyperforms one or more actions using one or more software applicationsbased on predefined user preferences.
 16. The wireless communicationsystem of claim 15 wherein: the event manager is configured to recognizethat a condition has become current and send a message to the SMSC: andthe SMSC is configured to generate an encoded SMS message to thewireless device that indicates the condition is current.
 17. Thewireless communication system of claim 15 wherein the wireless device isconfigured to: receive an encoded SMS message from the SMSC indicatingthe condition is current; determine from the condition registry whichapplications should be executed in response to the condition; andexecute the indicated applications.
 18. The wireless communicationsystem of claim 15, wherein the wireless device is configured tocommunicate with a provider software application for allowing the userto define the user preferences, wherein communication includescommunication via the Internet.
 19. The wireless communication system ofclaim 15, wherein the native applications include a call controllerapplication.
 20. The wireless communication system of claim 15, whereinthe native applications include a call controller application and thedownloaded applications include an email application, an address bookapplication, a custom ring application, a game application, and a mediaapplication.
 21. The wireless communication system of claim 15, whereinthe provider is a wireless cellular phone service provider and thewireless device is a cellular phone, wherein the conditions comprise: apeak rate being current; an off-peak rate being current; a minute bucketbeing empty; the wireless device means currently roaming for service;the wireless device means currently on network; and a start of a newbilling period.
 22. A wireless mobile device, comprising: more than oneapplication including native applications and downloaded applications; alist of conditions recognized by the device, wherein the conditionsrelate to wireless network provider charges for using the device on awireless network; a list of relationships between the conditions andactions to be taken by the device, wherein the device is configured toreceive a condition notification and take actions according to the listof relationships, wherein the actions comprise executing at least one ofthe downloaded applications.
 23. The wireless mobile device of claim 22,wherein the list of conditions and the list of relationships are storedin a Java application management service (JAMS).
 24. The wireless mobiledevice of claim 22, wherein the device is configured to communicate withthe wireless network provider to allow a device user to configurepreferences regarding the actions taken by the device in response toconditions.
 25. The wireless mobile device of claim 22, wherein thedevice is configured to: communicate with the wireless network providerto allow a device user to configure preferences regarding the actionstaken by the device in response to conditions; receive a signal from theprovider indicating that preferences have been changed; in response tothe signal, initiate communication with the provider; and retrieve newconfiguration information from the provider, including changes to thelist of relationships and changes to the list of conditions.
 26. Thewireless mobile device of claim 22, wherein the device is configured to:receive an encoded message from the wireless network provide indicatingthat a condition has occurred; open a communication channel to theprovider to retrieve the condition; and process the condition using thelist of conditions and the list of relationships.
 27. The wirelessmobile device of claim 25, wherein the signal is an encoded shortmessage service (“SMS”) message, and wherein the new configurationinformation is retrieved via a general packet radio service (“GPRS”)connection.
 28. The wireless mobile device of claim 25, wherein theencoded message is an encoded short message service (“SMS”) message, andwherein opening a communication channel includes establishing aconnection chosen from a group comprising a hypertext transfer protocol(“HTTP”) connection and a wireless application protocol (“WAP”)connection.
 29. The wireless mobile device of claim 22, wherein the userpreference include: a preference that email messages be sent only duringoff-peak rate time, else that email messaged be queued in the wirelessdevice; a preference that high priority emails be sent and receivedregardless of current conditions; and a preference that calls can beconnected to certain phone numbers for a maximum amount of time percharging period.
 30. A wireless communication system, comprising: awireless communication network means administered by a carrier; awireless device means that communicates with the carrier through awireless network, wherein, the wireless device means comprises more thanone software application, including native applications and downloadedapplications; the wireless communication network means notifies thewireless device means of conditions, wherein conditions relate toprovider charges for using the network; and the wireless device meansresponds by executing one or more of the software applications accordingto previously configured user preferences.
 31. The wirelesscommunication system of claim 30, wherein the wireless device meansfurther comprises: a condition catalog means that includes conditionsrecognized by the wireless device means; and a condition registry meansthat related conditions to actions to be taken by the wireless devicemeans, wherein the condition catalog means and the condition registrymeans are populated according to the user preferences.
 32. The wirelesscommunication system of claim 30, further comprising carrier-sideequipment means including a carrier application remotely accessed by theuser to configure the user preferences.
 33. The wireless communicationsystem of claim 30, further comprising carrier-side equipment meansincluding an event manager means configured to send a message to thewireless device means when a predefined condition occurs.
 34. Thewireless communication system of claim 30, further comprisingcarrier-side equipment means, including: an event manager meansconfigured to recognize a condition and generate a message; and amessage controller means configured to receive the message and generatean encoded message to the wireless device means indicating theoccurrence of the predefined condition.
 35. The wireless communicationsystem of claim 30, further comprising carrier-side equipment means,including: a carrier application remotely accessed by the user toconfigure the user preferences; and a storage means that stores the userpreferences.
 36. The wireless communication system of claim 30, whereinthe condition comprises: an on-peak rate being current; an off-peak ratebeing current; the wireless device means currently to roaming forservice; the wireless device means currently on network; and apre-allotted amount of minimum rate airtime being exhausted.
 37. Adevice-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, that whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to perform the methodcomprising: notify a wireless device of a condition that relates tovariable charges payable by a user of the device to a wireless networkprovider; and in response to the notification, execute one or moresoftware applications on the wireless device according to previouslyconfigured user preferences, wherein the one or more softwareapplications includes one or more downloaded applications individuallyconfigured by a user.
 38. The device-readable medium of claim 37,wherein the responding to the notification comprises: accessing acondition catalog that includes conditions recognized by the wirelessdevice; and accessing a conditions registry that relates a conditions toactions to be taken by the wireless device, wherein the a conditioncatalog and the a condition registry are populated according to the userpreferences.
 39. The device-readable medium of claim 37, furthercomprising receiving data inputs from the user remotely accessing anetwork provider application to configure the user preferences.
 40. Thedevice-readable medium of claim 37, wherein notifying comprises sendinga message to the wireless device when the a condition occurs.
 41. Thedevice-readable medium of claim 37, wherein notifying comprises: anetwork provider event manager recognizing a condition and generating amessage to a message controller; and the message controller generatingan encoded message to the wireless device indicating the occurrence ofthe condition.
 42. The device-readable medium of claim 37, furthercomprising: receiving data input from the user remotely accessing anetwork provider application to configure the user preferences; andstoring the user preferences in a user preferences database.
 43. Thedevice-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the condition comprises: anon-peak rate being current; an off-peak rate being current; the wirelessdevice means currently roaming for service; the wireless device meanscurrently on network; and a pre-allotted amount of minimum rate airtimebeing exhausted.